Welcome to the Painting Challenge. Here you will find the fabulous, fevered work from miniature painters from around the world. While participants come from every colour, gender, age and nationality, they have at least three things in common: they love miniatures, enjoy a supportive community and they have all taken the Challenge.
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Sunday, 30 December 2018

More 15mm Napoleonics for this submission but the miniatures are in the form of boats - four of them to be specific. All of the models are from Thoroughbred Miniatures Sea Eagles line and are true 15mm scale (vs the 18mm of Old Glory and AB miniatures). Each model kit does require a good bit of effort to assemble and paint up but I think are well worth the effort.

First up is a French Polacre. A Polacre is a frigate design that is a cross between a Xebec (lateen sails on the front and back) and a square rigger (the center main mast). The ships were found in the Mediterrain and were very manoeuvrable but not the fastest of hulls - in confined waters they were very dangerous opponents. The total length of the model is 18 inches

Next up is a standard Brig - In the this case the model is the USS Onieda but she'll be used as a French ship this summer. She mounts 16, 9 pounders and a big 32 pounder on the bow - This ship can cause some problems for our British friends. The Onieda is 15 inches long.

The third ship is perhaps my favorite of the group - a 12 gun British Cutter - super fast with reasonable firepower. This one comes in at 9 inches in length.

Lastly, we have a 18 gun British Brig. She's armed with 16, 32 pound carronades and 2, 18 pound long guns. This ship can inflict a devastating broadside up close. The model is 18 inches long.Some of you may have noticed 3 of the ships lack rigging - I wanted to do a little play testing before final rigging.Next up is - hey what's the yelling in the background....

I turn my back on these kids for just a second and they start fighting - incorrigible!I've got two more ships to build - a three masted Frigate for the French and a large Xebec for the Brits - and, yes, in my upcoming game the British will be employing some Barbary pirates as mercenaries. What gaming experience isn't made better with Pirates?

Ship building is very messy work. My work space will need a tidy-up before proceeding.As for points - I leave that up to Curt and his minions. It's 60 total inches of 15mm Napoleonic Naval fun. As for effort - these were actual a lot more work that the 28mm frigate that was submitted a few years ago.I believe this entire submission should count towards the Nautical side duel.

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Some people produce a ship, Miles rolls out with a flotilla. I dunno folks, I think he's compensating for something. :) Seriously, amazing work Miles. These Thoroughbred models are just terrific and I know I'll be visiting them soon after I wrap this up. What are they made up of? Resin and white metal, or do they have some laser-cut wood as well? I'm eager to see how you get on with the rigging. What are your plans for crew? These will look even more glorious with loads of sea dogs capering on their decks. Very, very cool.

Points? Hmm. Well let's make them into the equivalent of 15mm vehicles in their rough dimensions. A 15mm tank would approximately fit across their decks, so 60 inches (we're assuming that number is just the hull and not including the bowsprit) would equate to around 30 tanks. We'll round down due to the narrowing of the prow so let's say 26 vehicles worth. That times 8 and we have 208 points.

Well done Mr. Reidy. Now, let's see this frigate and xebec you have in the wings.

I do not expect any of these damsels to be included in Sarah's Best female figure...

My damsels should give me 30 points?

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Welcome back to the Challenge, Ray!

I'm somehow not surprised by your first entry, Mr. Rousell. After all this is the same chap who tried to sell us that a dancing bear he submitted was demonstrably female and should be considered for 'Sarah's Choice'.The less I say about these the better so I'll just keep it to, 'That's a very nice flesh tone you've come up with, Ray. Well done!'I still marked this one as a 'Sarah's Choice' candidate, but I wouldn't hold your breath there, buddy. ;)30 points to break the ice. Good work, Mr. Hefner.

I've wanted a Roman army for some while. This will be the start of their opponents.

I've been collecting Romans for the last few months whenever I've come across them second hand or in sales. In this way I've now 48 Caesarian Romans, around 100 Imperial Romans, enough Late Romans to start an army of them - and not a single Republican Roman. So I guess my Carthaginians will face non-historical opponents. But I'm not that concerned. Romans are Romans, surely?

This Victrix box is a great start for Carthage: 62 figures for less than £30 (and quite a bit less, if you shop around). These consist of 24 Veterans, 24 Liby-Phoenician heavy infantry and 14 Libyan javelin men. So here are the javelinmen, my first foray in this direction:

A close up:

(I've just noticed the red spot on his chin. I think that's an artefact of the photo, but I'll have to get the figure back out of the box and check. Maybe I'm repainting already!)

I rather like the hide shields that I've seen on some other gamers' Libyans, so that's what I've gone for here. Some work better than others. The brown and white in the next photo is probably a bit more pleasing than this black and white, but from a distance they all look quite convincing.

And the whole mob of fourteen.

I was quite pleased with these. And, thanks to Curt's advice, I think the photos this time are a tad better.

Wow that was quick getting a second post in so soon after your first. You'll be making serious inroads into your target in short order if you can keep this pace up!

I'm a huge fan of *anything* Carthaginian so you've hit a sweet spot for me with this entry. I'm also really pleased to see you've painted the flesh tones in an appropriate shade as opposed to the darker tones you sometimes see for Libyans.

Your colour scheme is also really appealing with the block of red/brown tunics to tie everything together paired with a mix of animal hide shields. Very effective indeed!

These speedy chaps earn you a further 70 points. Looking forward to seeing the next batch of troops for the new army.

Shortly before Christmas Warlord released their new WWII naval skirmish game Cruel Seas. Frankly for a long time their wasn't a release that I was so much looking forward to. Anyway my pre-order didn't arrive in time and more than two weeks of desperate waiting overshadowed my December. Anyway shortly before Christmas the starter set arrived and I couldn't resist painting enough boats for the first couple of scenarios. So here we go with the Vospers first.

Actually the basic games comes with six Vospers but until now I've painted only four of them. They are all in 1/300 (6mm) scale but very detailed. Due to the thick plastic they appear a bit bulky but nevertheless really nice models.

As usual I used Vallejo Model Colors to paint the ships. Mostly different shades of grey for obvious reasons. Afterwards I used a combination of washes from Citadel and AK to apply some weathering and give the boats slightly different shadings.

On one of the boats I mounted a couple of crew. They are 1/300 metal figures which Warlord delivers with the British resin boats from the fleet box. They fit on the plastic boats very nicely too and are a simple conversion. Only the paint to the small gap in the breastwork of the bridge. I'd use some green stuff to conceal that on the next batch of boats.

The flags are from the starter box as well. Really nice pieces though too small to call it a pleasure to assemble them. To conceal the white line of paper I painted the outlines to have Saint George's cross run around the whole flag.

Since Cruel Seas is all about torpedo boats it makes some sense to have a couple of torpedoes ready. With the starter set and the Royal Navy fleet box came two sprues with 16 torpedo markers each. Thus I took some time to paint them all in one process of piecework.

That's for now. Shortly there'll appear some German E-boats as well as an armed trawler for the Brits. My entry for the water bonus round is ready as well but let's keep this under the water surface for now. ;-)

Cheers

Stefan

Ahoy Stefan and welcome back!

Some absolutely smashing nautical modelling you have here my friend. It's becoming harder and harder for me to resist Cruel Seas and it's just this kind of entry that is causing me grief.

I am really impressed with your paintwork and weathering efforts on these. They have a really grimy and weather beaten look to them and you've brought the details out superbly. Painting the torpedoes must have been a bit tiresome but it't attention to detail and keeping the small stuff up to the same level of quality that really makes a table sing to my mind.

4 x 1/300 vehicles
4 x flags
32 x torpedoes
plus flags

I've paid a point each for the torpedoes so that makes a total of 72 points for these including flags and crew, though I am happy for Curt to revise that (which has duly happened thanks Paul). Well done mate!

This is my second Painting Challenge and I had my debut last year. I aimed for 750 points last year and smashed it coming in with over 800 points. This year I am aiming for 1000 points and am off to a very slow start but this is the busiest time of the year for me and once things get to normal I will push for my goal.

Kicking off this years AHPC I quickly painted up 5 x 20mm Taliban Infantry. These are from Elhiem Figures and I am a big fan of their 20mm Modern Range. I have already painted up a full platoon of Australians so it was fitting that they have an opposition. I have already painted a few Taliban but they are not eligible for submission in the challenge.

Taliban is such an interesting subject to paint (politics aside). After all someone needs to be the bad guy! I kind of went for some minor uniformity in the models. I am not a gun person and I believe they are armed with AK-47s.

5 x 20mm figures should net me 20 points.

I will be painting much more 20mm Modern for the challenge.

ThanksDave

Hi Dave!

Great to have you back for your second Challenge and to have you off and running too.

I'm not familiar with the Elhiem Figures range but they are clearly a real winner. Wonderfully dynamic poses and great proportions.

These are really well executed Dave. I like the muted palette which is suitably drab and workmanlike but at the same time your shading and highlighting really sets them off well. The basing is also top notch and really evocative of the harsh climate.

My second main project for the challenge is painting 13th century Russians. I spent ages in November assembling figures made from bits and pieces of Fireforge Russians, Scandinavians and Foot Sergeants, and these are the first results.

I just love the look of medieval Russians, with the mix of eastern and western influences and lots of colour.

These are based so that I can use them in skirmish games like Burn and Loot, but also so I can sabot base them for bigger games like Deus Vult and Impetus.

All shields, as always, are hand painted. I have extreme and uncharitable views about shield decals. I even saw some decals the other day that were for entirely blank shields. I mean, what is the point??

Anyways, expect to see more Russians as the challenge continues!Holiday Minion Millsy Reporting!Seeing as it is Lady Sarah's birthday (which really *should* be a Canadian National Holiday IMHO) I thought I would step in and give Curt a few extra minutes for foot massage, tea making and general slavish adoration.And what a first entry I get to review! Absolutely gorgeous colours, great character and some very atmospheric basing to finish off.Having just assembled a metric ton of Fireforge plastics in November myself I can attest to how much fun it can be mixing and matching their kits. You've done a great job of just that here mate and coupled with the poses you've chosen you have created a really attractive and dynamic unit.I particularly like the decoration you've added to the tunic edges and the shields are superb.These ten stalwarts will earn you a solid 52 points including two for the tunics and shields. More please!Cheers,Millsy

Wow, the AHPC IX Edition has fully started and I haven’t as much as glanced at the blog until today.

This is shameful, as I do try to be benignly supportive of Curt's hobby, so I will endeavour to catch up.

Also, I want to extend a warm Hello and welcome to the usual suspects and of course to all the new challengers - the 9th Edition promises to be stellar.

It is has become my tradition to award a prize for my favourite Female Figure. The winning entrant is totally based on my fickle whims and are not at all scientific. Although, anyone who paints a figure of Josephine in her Rose Garden at Malmaison is sure to get extra consideration! (BTW I’ve been waiting through eight challenges for this gauntlet to be picked up...)I only ask for Curt and/or the minions to tag prospective entries as 'Sarah’s Choice'.I will spend some time over the next few days catching up and commenting on the entrants since the wondrous madness began.Happy New Year Everyone!Sarah Postscript from Curt: Today is Lady Sarah's birthday! Hooray!! So as a heads up, I may be a bit delayed in getting everyone's posts up on the blog as I'll be doting, scraping and bowing to her benign magnificence all day today.

I had big plans to get six more French Men at Arms done before the challenge started, but alas that was not to be so although six were completed this week three of them were painted under the auspices of the challenge.

These are all from the Perry Miniatures Agincourt to Orleans range and I really hope over the next three months to make a big impact on this project. I managed to paint 72 English foot between Agincourt day and the 25th November and although unlikely to keep up that pace hope to have two good sized gaming forces done by the end of the challenge.

The are based on a standard Renedra 20mm x 45mm and then mounted in custom movement trays that I ordered from Warbases that fit three of these bases into a 80mm x 60mm, I had similar bases made to hold six infantry on Renedra 20mm rounds and you'll hopefully see some of those over the coming days and weeks.Here are some close-ups of the individuals:

This chap is in a transitional armour on a light bay horse, blue and white livery with three small crosses.

This chap is in 'white armour' on a chestnut horse. I think I made a bit of a mess of his lance, the spacing on the banding is completely wrong.

The last chap is in the older style of armour on a black horse. The red and green livery has three small white fleu-de-lys on the red.Here are the six figures completed this week, three of them were base-coated before the 21st, so I can only count these three towards my challenge total.

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Oooh, these are beautiful, Paul.

It seems throughout history heavy cavalry were very hit and miss, but one can't deny the majesty and level of intimidation they must have commanded on the field of battle (and on our own tabletops for that matter). With that in mind these certainly certainly fit the bill. I'm very impressed with the hand painted livery and heraldry - impressive brushwork that. I also like the horses, especially that lovely light bay with the dark socks. The basework is excellent as well, with the clever sabot basing to allow them to be used individually.

A great project, Paul, and one I look forward to seeing develop over the coming months.

As to points, I'm going to add a couple more per model for the hand painted work heraldry and ornamentation. Well done!

For my third entry, I present to you a complete (for now) Dragon Rampant army - The Children of Fenrir:

Whilst others at the Central London club have decided to go with the boring old options of Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Orcs and Skellies, I inevitably decided to go with an army that is probably quite daft but will be fun to play - wolves. And who better to have as their leader than that famous child of Loki, Fenrisulfr:

He definitely looks grumpy

...probably because he's got a bit of itchy grass on his muzzle

Fenrisulfr will be fielded as a greater warbeast-wizardling (well, as the son of a god he should have some magical powers).Just in case Fenrisulfr himself is tied up*, I have another leader group "The Skalds of Fenrir":

We wish you a bloody Ragnarok,

We wish you a bloody Ragnarok,

We wish you a bloody Ragnarok,

And an end of days...

These will be fielded as a lesser warbeast unit, which will free up some points to add another unit or add abilities.And of course, the Children themselves:

The Children will be fielded as lesser warbeasts.Looking at the Skalds and the Children, I think I will go back and add dark pupils to their eyes, Some of them look as though they will need a slight touch up around the eyes as well.Of course, most people would have opted for the quick and easy approach to painting wolves - mid-tone grey base coat, add some darker and lighter patches, black wash, light grey dry-brush, paint eyes, noses and mouths. Me? Oh, no, not me - several different base coat colours, several stages of dry-brushing, washing, adding darker/lighter patches, washing, dry-brushing, washing, add details...the end result? Probably not much different to if I'd gone for the quick and easy method! I also went a bit nuts on the basing, although the results do at least show there.All the figures are 28mm. Fenrisulfr is from Bad Squiddo Games; the rest are from Foundry (2), North Star (10) and Warbases (16). Fenrisulfr and the Skalds are mounted on 50mm bases, the Children on 50x75mm bases.As for the Dragon Rampant army:Fenrisulfr - leader/greater warbeast (6 points) plus wizardling (2 points) = 8 pointsSkalds of Fenrir - leader/lesser warbeasts (4 points)Children of Fenrir - 4 units of lesser warbeasts (4 x 4 points) = 16 pointsI do feel a bit bad about completing this army so quickly, given that I'm in the side-duel. With my rate of painting, that wasn't really fair, so I'll let whoever completes their army next claim the bragging rights.I might pick up a pack of Blue Moon's European Timber Wolves at some point - I imagine that they will be bigger than the North star and Warbases ones, so should do nicely for a couple of greater warbeast units.* Bet you thought I'd forgotten about this bit, didn't you? "...in case Fenrisulfr himself is tied up..." is, of course, a reference to Norse mythology and how Tyr (or Tew, for whom the day preceding that of the big man himself, Odin, is named) became one-handed.For scoring:29 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points = 145 points

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THAT is a very, very cool 'army', Tamsin (though I'm a bit biased as I've always liked wolves).Fenrisulfr is excellent (great eyes) and suitably ferocious, but I have to say that the Scalds are my favourite of the bunch, with their heads back, howling the praise of their leige lord - awesome stuff. I also really like the thought that went into your basework. The base layer, grass and rocks looks very natural and I like the dice slots in the rear corners. A very handy mod to help gameplay I'm sure.A very tidy 145 points for your efforts, Tamsin. Wonderful work!